Bar Exams, Biglaw, Bonuses, Money, Skaddenfreude

Skaddenfreude: Bar Stipends vs. Salary Advances

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An inquiry from a curious reader who will be starting at a Biglaw shop in New York in a few months:

It seems my friends starting work for Latham & Watkins this fall have received stipends (i.e. signing bonuses) of more than $13,000! And I thought I had a good deal when my NY firm was generous enough to offer me a “salary advance” of $10,000 (which I won’t receive for some time)…

I’m wondering if this bar stipend is common among other firms. In other words – how much am I being screwed? My friends in LA will effectively make a base salary of $173,000 their first year! That’s more than most NYC 2nd years! Wondering if you could post something and get to the bottom of this?

Thoughts? Please feel free to describe your firm’s policy on bar stipends / signing bonuses / salary advances in the comments. Or send us information by email (subject line: “Bar Stipend”). Thanks.
Update: With respect to Latham specifically, a source advises:

It’s true LW gives a bar stipend that equals one month of salary, but they do NOT give a stub bonus. [For the uninitiated, a “stub bonus” is a year-end or holiday bonus, but prorated to reflect the number of months you spent at a firm in your first year (since you weren’t there for all twelve months).]

To say that LW people get more than the NY firms is disingenuous, since a lot of NY law firms give a bonus in December equal to the bar stipend LW gives. I’ve heard that there are some firms that do both – that’d be awesome.

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